Wiley Accounting
Weekly Updates

Discussion Topics for Today's Classroom

MLAs looking for answers

Description: Nova Scotia MLAs on the Public Accounts Committee were looking for answers this week in terms of what had gone wrong at the IWK Health Centre. Several months ago the former CEO and CFO of the region’s largest children’s hospital were charged for their handling of expense account issues. In further questioning, MLAs zeroed in on purchasing practices. They also expressed concerns about the government’s imposition of new limits on the Committee’s line of questioning and its meeting frequency.

1) In taking a look at this article, what do you see as the biggest control weakness at the IWK Health Centre?

2) When you think about how the IWK is a high-profile fund raiser in the community, staging well-publicized efforts to raise money from the public, what would you do if you were the new CFO at IWK to establish trust?

3) What component of an internal control system do you see as the most important for the IWK right now? See page 360 in Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making.